Merion Golf Club facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Merion Golf Club

Club information
Location	Haverford Township, near Ardmore, Pennsylvania
Established	1912 - East Course 1914 - West Course
Type	Private
Total holes	36
Tournaments hosted	List of USGA Tournaments U.S. Women's Amateur (1904, 1909, 1926, 1949) U.S. Amateur (1916, 1924, 1930, 1966, 1989, 2005) U.S. Open (1934, 1950, 1971, 1981, 2013) Curtis Cup (1954) IGF World Amateur (1960) U.S. Girl's Junior (1998) Walker Cup (2009)
Website	Merion Golf Club
East Course
Designed by	Hugh Irvine Wilson
Par	70
Length	6,946 yards (6,351 m)
Course rating	75.1
Slope rating	151
West Course
Designed by	Hugh Irvine Wilson
Par	70
Length	5,989 yards (5,476 m)
Course rating	69.2
Slope rating	122
Merion Golf Club, East and West Courses
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark District
Location in Pennsylvania Show map of Pennsylvania Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	Ardmore, Pennsylvania
Built	1912
Architect	Hugh Irvine Wilson
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
NRHP reference No.	89002085
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 21, 1989
Designated NHLD	April 27, 1992

Merion Golf Club is a private golf club located in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania. This area is close to Philadelphia. The club has two golf courses: the East Course and the West Course.

The East Course is very famous. It has often been ranked among the top 10 golf courses in the United States. For example, in 2015, Golf Digest magazine ranked it as the 5th best. This course has hosted five major golf tournaments called the U.S. Open. The most recent one was in 2013.

History of Merion Golf Club

How the Club Started

Looking down the first fairway towards the clubhouse from Ardmore Avenue.

The Merion Golf Club began in 1896. It was started by members of the Merion Cricket Club, which was founded much earlier in 1865. These members wanted a place to play golf. They opened their first golf course in Haverford Township.

Building New Courses

In 1910, the club decided to build a brand new golf course. They chose a 32-year-old club member named Hugh Irvine Wilson to design it. Wilson was a graduate of Princeton University and a very good golf player.

The Merion East Course opened in September 1912. After this, the original golf course was closed. The West Course, also designed by Hugh Wilson, opened in May 1914. The Merion Golf Club officially became separate from the Merion Cricket Club in 1941.

Wilson's Smart Designs

Hugh Wilson had never designed a golf course before Merion. So, he took a seven-month trip to Scotland and England. He wanted to study famous British golf courses. Many features of Merion East come from these British courses.

For example, Merion has unique Scottish-style sand traps, called "bunkers." These are now known as the "white faces of Merion." A famous amateur golfer named Chick Evans gave them that name. Wilson's design for the East Course covers only about 126 acres (0.51 km²). This is a very small area for a golf course.

Even with its small size, the East Course is considered one of the best. In 2015, Golf Digest ranked it 5th in "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses." Famous golfer Jack Nicklaus once said, "Acre for acre, it may be the best test of golf in the world."

Wilson's designs were special because they were among the first to:

• Make it difficult for players who hit the ball off course.
• Offer different ways for players to reach the hole from the starting point.

The West Course still looks much like Wilson designed it. The East Course has had some changes to make room for a wider road. In 1992, the club was named a National Historic Landmark. This was because of its important contributions to golf course design.

Merion has hosted 18 championship tournaments for the United States Golf Association (USGA). This is more than any other golf course. The first two, in 1904 and 1909, were for women amateurs. They were held at the original Haverford course. The first men's tournament on the East Course was the 1916 U.S. Amateur. Chick Evans won this event. This was also the first time Bobby Jones played in a national championship. He was only 14 years old then! Jones won his first U.S. Amateur at Merion in 1924.

Bobby Jones' Grand Slam

In 1930, the U.S. Amateur tournament returned to Merion. Earlier that year, Bobby Jones had won three other major golf championships. These were the British Amateur, British Open, and U.S. Open. Everyone was excited to see if he could win all four. This amazing achievement was called the "impregnable quadrilateral."

Jones played very well in the qualifying rounds. He easily won his first four match play rounds. This led him to the final 36-hole match against Eugene Homans. About 9,000 people watched the start of the match. By the afternoon, 18,000 fans were there! People had to help guide the players through the crowd.

After the morning round, Jones was far ahead. He won the match 8 & 7. This means he was 8 holes ahead with 7 holes left to play. An Atlanta reporter named O. B. Keeler used the term "Grand Slam" to describe this amazing win. This term has been used ever since. Seven weeks after the tournament, Bobby Jones stopped playing competitive golf at age 28.

Hogan's Amazing Comeback

Ben Hogan's famous 1-iron shot at Merion in 1950.

The 1950 U.S. Open at Merion was a special moment for golfer Ben Hogan. It was his comeback after a terrible car crash 16 months earlier. The crash had shattered his pelvis and almost killed him.

On the last hole of the tournament, Hogan was in great pain. He needed to get a "par" (a good score for the hole) to force a playoff. He had to hit his ball over 200 yards (183 m) uphill and into the wind. Hogan used a 1-iron club to hit a perfect shot. The ball landed on the green far away. He then took two putts to get his par.

Hogan then won the tournament in an 18-hole playoff. He beat Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio. A famous photograph by Hy Peskin shows Hogan's 1-iron shot. It is one of the most famous pictures in golf history. The club he used was lost for over 30 years. It was found in the 1980s and is now in the USGA Museum. There is a plaque on the 18th fairway at Merion. It marks the spot where Hogan hit that famous shot.

Trevino Beats Nicklaus

The 1971 U.S. Open at Merion also ended in a playoff. This time, it was between Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. Many people thought they were the two best golfers in the world. Both players missed putts on the final hole that would have won them the tournament.

In the Monday playoff, Nicklaus struggled early with the sand traps. Trevino, who had won the U.S. Open in 1968, won by three strokes. This was his second U.S. Open title. It was also the second time Nicklaus finished second to Trevino in a major championship.

A Stronger Course for New Players

The 18th green and clubhouse. Notice the wicker basket on top of the pin.

After David Graham won the U.S. Open at Merion in 1981, some people thought Merion might not host another major tournament. The course was considered short (about 6,500 yards or 5,944 m). Also, its small size (111 acres or 0.45 km²) limited how many fans could watch. There wasn't much space for large tents and other event structures.

However, Merion acquired some nearby land. The East Course was also made longer, almost 7,000 yards (6,400 m). These changes helped address the concerns. After successfully hosting the U.S. Amateur in 2005, the USGA decided to bring the U.S. Open back to Merion. The 2013 tournament was held 32 years after the last one.

Justin Rose won his first major championship at this event. He finished with a score of one-over-par 281 for 72 holes. This gave him a two-stroke victory over Phil Mickelson and Jason Day. Most players praised the course, which had tough, long grass after a wet spring. The lowest score for 18 holes was three-under-par 67, achieved by several players, including Mickelson. The course proved to be a great test for modern golfers, even though some people worried that players would score very low.

The Famous Wicker Baskets

On the East Course, all the flagsticks have wicker baskets on top instead of flags. The West Course uses regular flags. One story says that when Hugh Wilson was studying golf courses in England, he saw shepherds using staffs with wicker baskets. They kept their lunch in these baskets to protect it from animals. Wilson decided to use this idea at Merion.

The baskets have a special effect: you can see them even when there's no wind. But they don't tell golfers which way the wind is blowing. These baskets have been used since at least 1916. They are even part of the club's logo!

The pin markers on Merion East have other unique features:

• They are 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) tall, including the 14-inch (36 cm) baskets. This makes them 6 inches (15 cm) taller than standard flagsticks.
• The poles are solid metal, not fiberglass.
• The baskets are red on the first nine holes and orange on the second nine.

Interestingly, the 1950 U.S. Open was the only USGA championship at Merion East where flags were used instead of baskets. In 2013, the club historian, John Capers, didn't know why. But he thought it might be because a player's ball bounced off a basket in a previous tournament.

Until about 1980, a member of the grounds crew made the wicker baskets on site. Now, a woman in South Carolina makes them. Her name and location are kept secret. Anyone who wins a USGA event at Merion receives a wicker basket top as a prize. If a basket breaks, it is destroyed. The golf course assistant superintendents collect the baskets every night to prevent them from being stolen.

Tournaments at Merion

Major Championships Hosted

Year	Tournament	Winner	Winner's share ($)
1934	U.S. Open	Olin Dutra	1,000
1950	U.S. Open	Ben Hogan ^	4,000
1971	U.S. Open	Lee Trevino ^	30,000
1981	U.S. Open	David Graham	55,000
2013	U.S. Open	Justin Rose	1,440,000
2030	U.S. Open
2034	U.S. Women's Open
2046	U.S. Women's Open
2050	U.S. Open

^ 18 hole playoffs: 1950, 1971

Amateur Championships Hosted

Year	Tournament	Winner
1904	U.S. Women's Amateur	Georgianna Bishop
1909	U.S. Women's Amateur	Dorothy Campbell
1916	U.S. Amateur	Chick Evans
1924	U.S. Amateur	Bobby Jones
1926	U.S. Women's Amateur	Helen Stetson
1930	U.S. Amateur	Bobby Jones
1949	U.S. Women's Amateur	Dorothy Porter
1966	U.S. Amateur	Gary Cowan
1989	U.S. Amateur	Chris Patton
1998	U.S. Girls' Junior	Leigh Anne Hardin
2005	U.S. Amateur	Edoardo Molinari
2026	U.S. Amateur

• The East Course opened in 1912 and was first used for the 1916 U.S. Amateur.

International Team Competitions

Year	Tournament	Winner
1954	Curtis Cup	United States
1960	Eisenhower Trophy	United States
2009	Walker Cup	United States
2022	Curtis Cup	United States

Merion Golf Course Scorecards

East Course Scorecard

West Course Scorecard

Merion Golf Club in Pop Culture

Merion Golf Club is featured in the novel "Back Spin" by Harlan Coben. In the story, a U.S. Open championship is taking place at Merion. During the tournament, the son of the leading golfer is kidnapped.

The club also inspired the name of the Marion Club in the video game Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color.